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But it's not only that! The woodwork is wonderful and the console, with, if I remember rightly, the gradual gradient of the manuals, is so comfortable to play!!

Yes, I knew that Ronald had gone to Helmsley. I had some dealings with the person who followed him there. His stammer was legendary, both at HT and at Hymers - but there was enormous respect for the man - even from schoolboys who can be very cruel!! I also knew he went to Brassington - to be close to his daughter was it? A true gentleman - of blessed memory!!

Well done, Barry!! I don't know of anyone who 'bangs the drum' more for a restoration of Hull Minster, aka Holy Trinity, organ more than you do! Eventually the sleeping giant will sound again and the organ world will realise what a magnificent beast she is! I look back on my childhood with a certain amount of affection. Sitting next to the console, with the great Ronald Styles (M.A., B.Mus., F.R.C.O., A.R.C.M., L.R.A.M. - he taught Chemistry at Hymers!!!) playing, was an absolute joy! I hope that, when the work is eventually done, apart from a considerable tidying up, they leave the rather wonderful console alone and did someone mention that one of the quotes received involved some new casework too!

A number of reasons why I thought it was all 'a bit much'. Financially. I calculated 113 'turn outs' a year - based on Sunday morning for 46 weeks + weekly rehearsals, monthly Choral Evenings and High Days and Holy Days. That works out at around £60 a 'turn out'!! It doesn't include time spent planning, recruiting new members of a choir, researching suitable music, meetings with clergy etc. And we all know how much time this takes up! Musically I was interviewed, over 30 years ago, for the post of DoM in a Cathedral. I got to the short list of three! At no time was I asked to play the organ. Neither were the other two candidates. The assistant was an FRCO and it was either assumed that I did play, and held an organ qualification to prove it, or I didn't! For the particular post mentioned there is an Assistant Organist already in place. The Job Specification asks for 'ARCO or equivalent'. If there is an Assistant why does the DoM have to be an organist and why 'ARCO or equivalent'? I know a number of DoM's who never go near the organ and couldn't play Widor (or a Bach P & F!) to save their lives! I also know a number of ARCO's who would not want to, at sight, improvise for 2 minutes on a hymn tune and then transpose the last verse, although they should be able to do it! I admit that the ability to transpose is pretty nigh essential for a DoM. I'm also told that, at ARCO level, this is where most candidates fall down! Travelling I said it was an 'out of the way' place. The nearest city is 12 miles away - with more churches, I suspect, than organists! Another city 50 miles away possibly has a dearth of players - but the cost of petrol.......................... twice, or three times a week? There is little choir to speak of! 'The ability to recruit and retain children and adults as choir members' says something! And lastly and, perhaps the most difficult area and one I didn't mention. Anyone applying for the position would, no doubt, google and find out that, in the past number of years there has been a war, not too strong a word, between the clergy, the congregation, the town, the music department and the Bishop. There is a new 'Priest in Charge' and I applaud his ambition for high quality music. I just think that the place is asking a bit much!! I hope that they have found someone - but the advert is still there - nearly two months after the interview date!!

I saw an advert for a 'Director of Music' - I'll not say where - but we are not talking Cathedral or 'Greater' churches! It was a 'bit out of the way'!! The shortlisted candidate was required to play: A Prelude or Fugue by J S Bach Widor’s Toccata A hymn given on the day: play first verse, improvise for 2 minutes, modulate up a tone for a final verse. Short-listed Candidates will also be asked to direct members of the choir in practice for about 20 minutes to prepare a new psalm and accompany a Rutter anthem on the piano. The salary was £7,000 a year + about £2000 in fees. I thought it to be a bit much, to say the least and, as the day for applications is past and also the day for interviews, I'm wondering whether they found someone!!

Yes I saw that too! Scoucerintheshire2016 (I know who that is!) is asking £700 for it - and, so far, has had no bids! I also noticed a 2 manual Harrison & Harrison for sale - from Sunderland in, quote, 'fairley good condistion' with a price tag of £42,000! I didn't bid because they 'might not deliver to France'!!! I hope it doesn't end up on the scrap heap but, if they think thy are going to get that kind of figure for it, I suspect it might!! There is also 2 manual Walker extension organ for sale - £12,000 (although it says 10k further down the page) plus professional installation and delivery!

No suggestions, Martin, but you pass some interesting places: Messina - Napoli - Roma - Firenze - Bologna - Verona (it is only 100km from Verona to Padua!!!) - Innschbruck Have a safe journey!!

He died on March 25th. An interesting musician, he studied Music and Architecture at University and practised as an Architect until his death. He was also a member of the Cologne School of musicians which included Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kagel, and Bernard Alois Zimmerman. I sat next to him at a performance of Pierre Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maitre at Darmstadt in, I think, 1973. His repertoire was enormous and included Sweelinck, Scheidt, Praetorius, Pachelbel, Buxtehude, de Grigny, Couperin, Clérambault, Bach, Mozart, Liszt, Reubke, Reger, Franck, Widor, Saint-Saens, Vierne, Dupré, Hindemith, Krenek, Schönberg, Ligeti, Xenakis and Poulenc. Of course he is best remembered as an organist, harpsichordist and authority on Baroque music. I liked the criticism of a performance in Hamburg: Darüber hinaus ist er von jenem musikantischen Feuer erfüllt, das die gebührende Spannung in die Werke bringt. Er besitzt so viel technische Brillanz, geschmachliche Sicherheit und in allem rhythmische Präzision, dass er sich rassante Tempi leisten kann, dass er die für die spätbarocke Praxis typischen improvisatorischen Auszierungen nicht zu vergessen braucht. Sein Spiel setzt Maßstäbe Musical fire, technical brilliance, confident confidence and rhythmic precision Sein Spiel setzt Maßstäbe - his game sets standards!!!

Of the music by contemporary composers I thought Roxana Panufnik's Sanctus to be the most inspired. The Debbie Wiseman 'Alleluyas' and Paul Mealor's 'Kyries' left me cold. To use the word 'drivel' for the ALW anthem is too kind! I cannot understand why anyone would have asked him to set the words 'Make a joyful noise ......' All wonderfully performed though!!!

The commentary version is hugely welcomed but there are still omissions and inconsistencies which surprise me. William Byrd, Debbie Wiseman, Roxana Panufnik & Tarik O'Regan get their full names but Handel, Weelkes, Walford-Davies Lloyd-Webber, Gibbons, Boyce and Walton are only addressed by surname. The Fanfare is Richard Strauss not one of the Waltz Kings!! (and, it seems to me, a rather strange choice!) The omissions. Who is playing the organ? Who is directing which choir(s)? Is an orchestra taking part - which one and who is conducting it. What music, apart from the Parry is being played beforehand? I know the answers to, almost, all of these questions but find it strange that no mention is made on the Order of Service! (see the Order of Service above for the Funeral of the late Queen) An American was heard to say, with a deep Southern drawl, of an occasion when the Church of England, the State and the Armed Forces got together "Gee, only the British could put on a show like this!!!!" It seems to me that the Order of Service hasn't been carefully enough proofread - or, perhaps, I am just being too fanatical today!!! On a liturgical point I am pleased to see the Gospel surrounded by Alleluias and not just preceded by them! I remember a visiting Priest, who wasn't an Oxbridge graduate but had acquired the most perfect Oxbridge accent saying to me one morning before our morning High Mass "And I suppose that you are going to precede and follow the Gospel with a multiplicity of Alleluias" We were - and did!! I'm looking forward to next Saturday and to watching with a certain amount of pride, from afar - because - only the British can put on a show like this!!!!!!

I was wondering where the Parry had disappeared to!!

A very wise policy, in my opinion! The armchair, back-of-fag-packet amateurs are straining at the leash to see it on paper and then to be able to comment on the lack of this or the reason for that!

Thank you for that Rowland. Surely that isn't the final copy! I notice a number of omissions! The composer of the Greek setting of Psalm 71 and the omission of any of the music before the Service - do the King and Queen and the other processions enter in silence? Also no acknowledgements of the musicians involved or the full names of the composers and their dates of birth/death etc The publication all looks a bit 'draft' to me. Compare it with the last State occasion state_funeral_of_her_majesty_queen_elizabeth.pdf (royal.uk) Just a thought!!!

CC has a formidable technique, to say the least! Some would question his musical taste and some, as was evident on here a few years back, made personal comments that, at the very last were unhelpful, at worst, they were slanderous and were removed!!

Me too!!!

Yes, thy arrived and successfully downloaded. PM of thanks sent! We don't have a 'Sortie' at Mass during Lent, except on Laetare Sunday but they will come in very useful as little reflections between 'Stations of the Cross' on the evening of Good Friday - even if the French don't know the tunes the pieces are based on!! I did my Grade IV 'cello when I was about 7 or 8 and played two little pieces by W S Lloyd Webber for the exam. Nearly 70 years later I can still remember them. They were beautifully crafted little pieces. As I expected the organ pieces Tony sent to me are, similarly, beautifully written.

My late wife came from York and, during the summer holidays, we would visit her parents so that I could spend hours and hours up, almost in the attics, in the shop at the corner of Stonegate, hunting for new music for my, very able, choir to sing, buying a single copy and going away to look at it before ordering a batch of 40 copies. I remember Banks Music moving from Stonegate, across the square and around the corner, to the shop in Lendal. The names of the two guys who worked in the sheet music department escapes me but one of them was Nicholas and he was an amazing source of information. Miss Banks was a bit terrifying. In Stonegate you had to pass her office going up to the church music department and it was almost like trying to avoid the Headmaster at school. When she died Ray Lovely said that she had 'gone out of print'!! I suppose it was, almost inevitable that it would close. Nowadays I could have looked on Choralwiki, found what I was looking for and, if necessary, and it was legal, have edited and printed it on Sibelius. Banks was an institution. It's sad to see it go.

Advertised in todays 'Church Times' Director of Music and Schools Singing Programme Sheffield Cathedral Sheffield Cathedral is looking for a great musician and exceptional leader to shape the Cathedral Music and Sheffield Schools Singing Programme across the city. Are you able to work in partnership with others? Are you passionate about music education? If so, then this role could be for you. Pay scale from £39,000 to £43,000 with cost-of-living increments and a salary development scale included. For more information about Sheffield Cathedral visit: www.sheffieldcathedral.org It looks to me as if Sheffield might be thinking in terms of the excellent RC Diocese of Leeds music programme

What i am saying, and what I think Dr. Colin Pykett is saying, is that those of us who spent years and years working and eventually defending our Doctorates should be entitled to be addressed as Dr. Merely being given one for doing a job, albeit for a rather long time, rather downgrades our efforts!

You and me both!!! There used to be a Cathedral organist who styled himself Dr. ........................... He had an Hon D, Mus. and hadn't even been through the mill at a half decent University!! In truth he wasn't much of a player either!

There are, of course, exceptions but - white, middle class, public school, male, Oxbridge all spring to mind! I noticed a series of organ recitals, I won't say where, but, of the 25 or so recitals, all, bar one, were by white males!! There are so many barriers in place for the black girl from an inner-city comprehensive learning to play almost any musical instrument - let alone the organ! And, apart from whinging about it, very few seem to be doing anything!!! Again, there are exceptions! I had a student, a white male, from a good comprehensive school who studied music at Oxford and got a First! At the time he was there he was the ONLY student in the music faculty from a comprehensive school. I don't know whether that is a condemnation of comprehensive schools or Oxford. It is a sad state of affairs - the music profession is becoming middle-class, public school and largely white.

LOL - didn't we all - in fact, I think I still have one - and, he hesitates to add, it hasn't been used since the first time I played 'cello continuo in 'Messiah' at the age of about 13 when I didn't really understand what a Recitative was and had to look at a score to try and work out how the conductor was going to deal with it!! As I say, I was about 13!!!

Fr. Sebastian died in Galway in Ireland.

Truro Cathedral are advertising for a Director of Music. I have to say that it looks a very well thought out application pack and includes, not as an essential but as a desirable: "It is likely that the person appointed with be a talented organist, but this is not an essential qualification. Additional teaching experience or qualifications."

Are you speaking from personal experience of having worked in the cathedral - or have you just been listening to unqualified rumour? I've conducted in the building innumerable times and, once you get used to it, it isn't difficult at all. I've conducted a large choir with organ, singing 'big' 19th/20th cent. music, where you have to make sure the organ doesn't outplay the choir. Philip Duffy once told me to accompany hymns on no more that Gt. 4 - coupled to Sw 5. because the sound of the organ goes over the choir and drowns them. I, also, one Sunday morning conducted a Monteverdi Mass with just eight singers - who found it a delight to work in. Moving the choir stall to almost face each other made a big difference as well! It's a glorious building to work in!! Walker's did a wonderful job - and, I suspect, Harrison's rebuild brings out the very best in it!